Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980-2000

Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980-2000, edited by David Card, Richard Blundell and Richard Freeman (NBER, Chicago, IL, 2004), pp. x + 510.

The UK entered the 1980s as a highly regulated economy. She ended the century as one of the least regulated

The Thatcher government began this process with legislations lowering trade union power, facilitating the sale of council housing, lowering the relative value of unemployment benefits, privatising industries and encouraging private pensions. The Major government continued with further privatisation, greater private pension provision and the removal of the Wages Councils (who set minimum wages levels in certain occupations, often female dominated occupations). The Blair government introduced a minimum wage, but has also encouraged market-friendly policies, including employee share-ownership programs, linking welfare to work, and shifting some powers from central to local government. The breadth of the reforms, the changes in economic policy and the new institutional arrangements over this time period were truly daunting.